Field of the Invention
The teachings are directed to a single unit, 360-degree camera with an integrated lighting array, fixably attached to the camera or removably attached to the camera, the lighting array being at least substantially invisible to the lens of the camera when taking a spherical image.
Description of the State-of-the-Art
A problem in the art of spherical imaging is obtaining a desired amount of lighting without the lighting apparatus being visible in the spherical image. This is because the additional/sufficient/enhanced lightning that is desired over a scene is hard to achieve because there is no such thing as “behind the camera” in a panoramic video, for example.
Current technology uses flooded lighting in the environment in which a spherical image is taken. The problem is that the lighting is often insufficient, and the only solution, currently, is to use an adjacent, independent source of lighting that needs to move independent of the spherical camera, which means the problem still remains that the lighting source is visible to the camera.
One of skill will appreciate having a solution to this problem, namely, a single unit, 360-degree camera with a lighting array, attached to the camera or integrated with the camera, that is at least substantially invisible to the lens of the camera when taking a spherical image.